Link previews are the brief descriptions and visual previews of the link that we share in a conversation. While its features remain the same, ways in which the link preview is handled by different social media differ. This article will explain to you how Facebook handles link previews.
1: The publisher is not allowed to edit all the links.
Publishers are required to indicate that they are the owners of the websites in order to continue editing how their links show on Facebook.
2: Multiple domains and multiple pages
The publishers can indicate their link ownerships for multiple domains and pages that they are in possession of. Both the website domain and the page must consent ownership for a page in order to have access to the modification of link previews from a specified domain.
3: Access to the link ownership tool is restricted.
Currently, only media publisher pages are allowed to modify links from their domains. If you are a publisher and are not able to see the tab of ‘Link Ownership’ in the page’s publishing tools, then you must contact your partner manager.
4: Modifications in editing link previews
As part of Facebook’s ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of false news and misinformation on their platform, they have removed the facility of any page to edit the way a link appears on Facebook. By eliminating the ability to modify link metadata, i.e., image, description, and headline, from all the link-sharing entry points on Facebook, they have removed a channel that was earlier being used to post false news.
5: The modification of links using other entry points
In 2017, the ability to modify metadata on Facebook for previews attached to link post was removed for most apps and pages.
Graph API: All API versions stopped supporting the capability and the page admin could not make these edits in page composer.
Ads Interfaces: For the Page posts that had not been published then, the fields like picture, description, display link, and link headline were removed in 2017. Moreover, even though the publisher would be able to create unpublished page posts, the link information started being based on what Facebook pulled in while scraping the URL.
Video Link Posts: The ability to create organic video link posts was also removed in 2017 because of abuse and integrity risks of the format. Nonetheless, the video link page posts can still be made using the Ads API and Ads Manager (ads creation interfaces) for sponsored posts.
Conclusion
Every website has its own way of handling link previews and so does Facebook. By making various modifications in 2017, Facebook eliminated many ways in which people can misuse link editing, hence, making Facebook a more reliable and true source of information